Accusative absolute

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The accusative absolute is a grammatical construction found in some languages. It is an absolute construction found in the accusative case.

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Greek

In ancient Greek, the accusative case is used adverbially with participles of impersonal verbs, similarly to the genitive absolute. [1] For example:

συνδόξαν

sundóxan

seeming good-ACC

τῷ

tôi

the-MASC.DAT.SG

πατρὶ

patrì

father-DAT

καὶ

kaì

and

τῇ

têi

the-FEM.DAT.SG

μητρὶ

mētrì

mother-DAT

γαμεῖ

gameî

marries

τὴν

tḕn

the-FEM.ACC.SG

Κυαξάρου

Kuaxárou

Cyaxares-gen

θυγατέρα

thugatéra

daughter-ACC

συνδόξαν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῇ μητρὶ γαμεῖ τὴν Κυαξάρου θυγατέρα

sundóxantôipatrìkaìtêimētrìgameîtḕnKuaxárouthugatéra

{seeming good-ACC} the-MASC.DAT.SG father-DAT and the-FEM.DAT.SG mother-DAT marries the-FEM.ACC.SG Cyaxares-gen daughter-ACC

"It seeming good to his father and mother, he marries the daughter of Cyaxares." (Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.5.28)

German

In German, a noun phrase can be put in the accusative to indicate that the sentence's subject has the property it describes. [2] For example:

Neben

next to

ihm

him

saß

sat

der

the

dünnhaarige

thin-haired

Pianist,

pianist

den

the-MASC.ACC.SG

Kopf

head

im

in the

Nacken,

neck

und

and

lauschte.

listened

Neben ihm saß der dünnhaarige Pianist, den Kopf im Nacken, und lauschte.

{next to} him sat the thin-haired pianist the-MASC.ACC.SG head {in the} neck and listened

"The thin-haired pianist, his head back (lit. his head in his neck), sat next to him and listened."

Latin

The accusative absolute is sometimes found in place of the ablative absolute in the Latin of Late Antiquity as, for example, in the writings of Gregory of Tours and Jordanes. This likely arose when the pronunciations of the ablative and accusative singulars merged, since the final -m of the accusative singular was no longer pronounced, having been fading since the Classical era. The accusative absolute is also found with plural nouns whose ablative and accusative are not similar in pronunciation.

Sources

  1. ↑ Balme, Maurice and Gilbert Lawall. Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp 172.
  2. ↑ Duden 4, Die Grammatik, 5th edition (1995), p. 624

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